The Doctrine of Promissory Estoppel—A Public Law Perspective

The Doctrine of Promissory Estoppel: A Public Law Perspective, authored by Dr Ashok Saraf (Senior Advocate) and Adv. Aditya Ajgaonkar, is the first dedicated public law treatise on one of Indian jurisprudence's most litigated yet least systematically examined doctrines. Moving decisively away from the conventional treatment of promissory estoppel as a contract law appendage, the work positions it as a mature principle of administrative and constitutional accountability—one that has been shaped, tested, and refined through landmark Supreme Court rulings from Indo-Afghan Agencies to Motilal Padampat, and applied across taxation, land reform, governmental incentives, and political promises. Across ten rigorously structured chapters, the book maps the doctrine's intellectual lineage from English equity, analyses its cardinal limitations, and delivers a nuanced comparative treatment of promissory estoppel and legitimate expectation that clarifies where each doctrine offers a stronger remedy against the State. The final chapter stands apart for its rare candour—raising pointed questions about judicial inconsistency, doctrinal conflation, and the pressing need for certainty in Indian public law.